Loake leads JHR 1-2 in red-flagged GB3 season opener

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Joseph Loake resisted a late safety car restart to win a red-flagged GB3 opener at Oulton Park ahead of JHR Developments team-mate Matthew Rees.

The British Formula 4 graduate converted pole into the lead at the start, edging out a 0.5 second advantage over Rees, while Rodin Carlin’s Callum Voisin slotted into third.

Red Bull junior Souta Arao fended off a challenge from Arden VRD’s James Hedley at the start to hold on to fourth.  But Hedley went on the attack at the end of the lap into Lodge corner before drawing alongside the Hitech GP driver and taking third into Old Hall on lap two.

But Hedley then made a mistake which allowed Arao back through and he then came under pressure from Douglas Motorsport’s Tymek Kucharczyk.

The race was neutralised with five of the scheduled 14 laps to go when Arao spun to a halt at Hill Top. Racing resumed with three laps to go, with Loake maintaining his lead.

But there a multi- car collision further back at Lodge before the restart. Gerrard Xie, McKenzy Cresswell and Costa Toparis were caught up in the mele and retired, with Toparis’ abandoned machine then rolling backwards into the middle of track as cars came round on the next lap, with everyone somehow avoiding it.

Officials decided to bring the race to an early end as a result, with Loake declared the winner by 0.473s ahead of Rees, with Voisin completing the podium. Hedley was fifth ahead of Kucharczyk and Hitech’s Alex Dunne.

Dunne profited from the red flag to finish sixth despite losing his front wing in a collision with Rogeon after the late restart while trying to take the position at Cascades. Rogeon stopped with a puncture, with a 10s jump start penalty demoting him to 18th in the final classification. Max Esterson was seventh for Douglas ahead of JHR’s David Morales.

John Bennett (Carlin) and Lucas Staico (Douglas) collided on the first lap, forcing both to visit the pitlane with damage, while Daniel Mavlyutov was a spinner at Old Hall and also retired in the late chaos.

Race result (11 laps)